Mother of U.S. Citizen Held in North Korea Wraps Up Visit

Kenneth Bae, right, an American man detained in North Korea for the past 11 months, and his mother Myunghee Bae talk during their meeting at a hospital in Pyongyang Friday, Oct. 11, 2013.

The mother of Kenneth Bae, the U.S. citizen being detained in North Korea, finished a five-day visit to Pyongyang on Tuesday, but came away with little clarity on when her son might be freed.

In a statement released by the family, Myunghee Bae said that she was able to visit Mr. Bae three times during her stay, and that her son’s health had improved.

But she said the visit also made her “more anxious than ever to bring him home,” pleading with the U.S. authorities to “do everything in their power” to get her son out of North Korea.

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Mrs. Bae’s visit comes just weeks ahead of the one-year mark of her son’s detention in the North. Mr. Bae, a tour guide and Christian missionary, was arrested last November near the China-North Korea border and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.

Because of Mr. Bae’s failing health — he had lost 50 pounds at one point — the authorities transferred him to a hospital in Pyongyang in early August, a move that seems to have made a difference, according to Mrs. Bae’s statement.

While she was careful to thank the North Korean authorities for “generously” allowing her to visit, Mrs. Bae said “it broke my heart to leave him behind,” adding that “the pain and anxiety continue to carve a deep scar on all of our hearts.”

North Korea watchers and those in the diplomatic community have struggled to explain the North’s apparent unwillingness to release Mr. Bae, who has already been detained in North Korea longer than any U.S. citizen in recent memory.

Mrs. Bae’s visit represented a third opportunity in recent months for the authorities in Pyongyang to let Mr. Bae go.

A few days later, former U.S. basketball star Dennis Rodman — who had said in interviews that he would bring up Mr. Bae’s case to North Korean leader Kim Jung Un — headed to Pyongyang. But Mr. Rodman, too, returned empty-handed.